Kickstarting Comics: ‘You Don’t Want To Slip Down Here’ – When Sanitation Turns Nasty… ‘The Berg’

by Richard Bruton

Another Kickstarter for you to get behind now, the 48-pages of unsavoury, unsanitary, but damn fine horror in The Berg.

The Berg is already running on Kickstarter and, quite rightly, has already blown through its target, but I’ve been fortunate enough to see a copy of this already and I can tell you that this is one that you should definitely be backing. It’s a perfectly put-together horror for our times.

Published by Cabal Comics, written by Sarah Peploe and Fraser Campbell with art by Gavin Mitchell, lettering by Colin Bell, and colour assists by JP Jordan, it’s all about the horrors under our feet and under our streets.

When the sewers are built for four million at a push and they’re now having to cope with the waste of eight million plus, you’ve got trouble. But the sanitation team headed into London’s sewers to clear the biggest fatberg ever seen, well they have absolutely no idea what kind of trouble they’re about to walk into.

From the off, things get strange – their comms fail, the power dies, and they’ve started hearing things, seeing things. There’s something very wrong down here and they’re gripped with a sense of foreboding.

It’s almost as if something’s watching them, hunting them. And that fatberg… well, it couldn’t be that behind it all? Could it?

Everything about this one just works so damn well. From the off, we get a delicious horror tale, all concerned working hard to put that shiver down your spine and just never letting up.

As Cabal Comics’ PR says, this one is “blending character-driven story with classic creature-feature action, THE BERG will appeal to fans of horror, monster movies, exploitation, and gross, gloopy, gooey against-the-odds action! If you’re a fan of movies like The Thing, The Blob, Lake Placid, Alligator, The Host, Slugs, Alien, The Descent, Tremors and comics like Nameless, B.P.R.D, Man Thing and Creature Commandoes you’ll love THE BERG!”

Yep, I’m absolutely in agreement. This one is just a great, great bit of horror.

In terms of those involved, we have a great creative team. Fraser Campbell is the writer of great Brit comics including Alex Automatic and The Edge Off. Co-writer Sarah Peploe writes and draws comics as part of Mindstain Comics co-operative, and her short horror stories have appeared in various publications. The art comes from Gavin Mitchell, whose works been published by Dark Horse, Image and Penguin in the past. He also makes comics about a retired carpet salesman-turned private detective.

Letters come from Brit comics mainstay and great, Colin Bell, of the brilliant Dungeon Fun and Pirate Fun, whilst colour assists come from JP Jordon, a comic writer and colourist, whose latest work comes in the graphic novel Ploughman.

But back to Berg and what you’ll be looking at when you go and back it… because you will be going and backing it.

As far as tiers and rewards go, there are, of course, the print and digital versions of The Berg (digital drainage and physical filth), a putrid postcard set, and a digital discharge megabundle featuring comics by Fraser, Gavin and Sarah, including Sarah’s brand new comic, Offshore. There’s also the chance for commissions from Gavin Mitchell.

And of course there’s the option to custom build your rewards with the chance to add, add, add, and add some more comics from the creators.